Known fuel cell apparatus disclosed in Japanese Patent Laid-Open Publication No. 2000-106207 includes a fuel cell having an electrolyte membrane, a fuel electrode to which a fuel gas is supplied, and an air electrode to which air is supplied. The disclosed fuel cell also includes a fuel cell cooling system for cooling the fuel cell by supplying the cooling water thereto.
Further, such fuel cell generally includes a first heat exchanger for eliminating moisture contained in a fuel gas to be supplied to the fuel cell for power generation through heat exchange, a second heat exchanger for eliminating moisture contained in a fuel off-gas discharged from the fuel cell after the power generation through the heat exchange, a third heat exchanger for eliminating moisture contained in an air off-gas discharged from the fuel cell after the power generation through the heat exchange, and a heat exchanger for fuel cell cooling water for recovering heat in the fuel cell cooling water of the fuel cell cooling system.
The heat exchangers mentioned above are provided separately and thus pipings for connecting the heat exchangers to each other are required. As a result, the structure of the fuel cell apparatus is complicated and also space efficiency thereof is not high. Further, total length of the pipings connecting the heat exchangers to each other is long and thus heat radiation from the pipings is large, thereby restricting the heat recovery amount.
Thus, a need exists for a fuel cell apparatus which obtains a simple structure and high space efficiency, and wherein the heat radiation from the pipings connecting the heat exchangers to each other is decreased.